Monty Poodle.

19 March 2013

Every morning before school, after Finn and Tate have had their breakfast, Finn tells Monty to sit. He carefully scoops out the right amount of food. It’s then that Tate tells the already sitting Monty again to “sit,” and she scrambles over and loudly deposits the food into his dish before shuffling back over to her brother to return the empty cup with an expectant smile on her face. Finn has been doing this breakfast feeding routine for almost four years now and I think he misses being the one to put the food in the dish. He lets his little sister do it because she gets so excited to help. Monty still looks to Finn for the OK to go scarf down breakfast, which he does in seconds.

Eight years ago, I found the photo of a sweet scruffy faced poodle online. I emailed Dave who promptly responded that he didn’t think now was a good time for a dog and he for sure didn’t want a poodle. Now, in Dave’s defense, I had been emailing him for months about getting a dog, one that would get along with our Dexter kitty. There was a particular incident in which I began sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of a pet adoption because the dog we came to meet had already found her forever home. We were in the midst of wedding planning. And taking off for a two week European honeymoon. Oh, and I was finishing my senior year of college. And working full time.

If I am being honest, it really wasn’t the time.

I begged him to just take a look. Once he did, it was moments before he was making the call to see if ‘Joey’ was still available.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

He agreed to go meet him and make the decision while I was in class that evening. He knew that if I went we would unequivocally be coming home with a dog.

John made the mistake of sending me and my kids to "look" at Midgie.... We brought her home with us.. After I told him the conditions she was living in she grew on him quicker.... Toward the end he would let her sit on him and just pet her.